Summary

The narrator compares her relationship to that of a chess board in which she is the king, always in danger and not able to move freely compared to her husband, the queen, who can move wherever he wants. He tells his wife that all she needs to do is show some cleavage and be depressed, and she can be a female writer. He blames her depression on her middle class proclivities and tells her that without it, she is nothing. When they have sex, if she accidentally makes a sound, he swears at her and sometimes will stop having sex with her. He tries to eliminate any evidence of their sexual encounters and places pillows under doors to absorb any noise.

When the narrator’s husband hits her, she says the worst part is not the shame or the pain but rather...